High School Basketball : Charging Call Sets Up San Diego for Victory

Depending on perspective, Adalberto Silva was either finally caught or falsely charged. He was charged with charging.

And host San Diego (19-4) thus charged ahead in the Division I boys’ basketball playoffs with a 59-55 victory over Southwest (21-8) Saturday night.

San Diego will play Valhalla in a semifinal Tuesday night.

Twenty six seconds remained. Southwest trailed, 56-55. Silva turned his hulking frame for a turnaround bank shot, which dropped neatly in the basket. One problem. The referee whistled him for charging into San Diego forward Clark James.

That made five fouls for Silva, who danced around with a look of disgust on his face before returning to the bench, kicking it and taking a seat.

Soon after, on the other end of the floor, James made one of two free throws. Southwest had one last chance, but Will Tate’s attempt to drive for a layup resulted in a lot of glass and nothing else. James got the ball back, was fouled and connected on two free throws to seal it.

So now we hear from both sides. Was it a charge, or wasn’t it?

“It was a charge,” James said matter-of-factly in the winners’ locker room. “He just messed up at the wrong time.”

And the defendant’s view?

“Personally,” Silva said, “I don’t think I charged. I was doing the same move the whole game, and I didn’t get called. I guess that’s the way it goes.”

Now for a somewhat objective opinion.

“I didn’t think it was much of an offensive foul, but it was consistent with the way the game was being called,” San Diego Coach Dennis Kane said.

Looking at pregame warmups, it would have been difficult to tell this game would come down to the final seconds. Southwest is a group of over-achievers. San Diego is a bunch of talent. If nothing else, San Diego’s superior height would have figured to make this a rout.

But Southwest just kept pestering the bigger team with its full-court press. It kept frustrating the bigger team with Tate, the spirited point guard who finished with 25 points to tie with James for game-high scoring total.

“This is a great team,” Kane said of Southwest. “The sum is greater than the parts.”

Just not great enough.

Southwest took a 51-50 lead with just more than 3 minutes remaining on a Tate layup. San Diego center Milton Miller, who finished with 23 points, answered with a bank shot. James followed soon after with a jump shot, giving San Diego a three-point lead and forcing Southwest to play catchup the rest of the way.

In another boys’ Division I quarterfinal:

Poway 92, Granite Hills 85--Adam Jones scored 31 points, and Jay Blankenbeckler had 30 to lead host Poway (21-4).

Poway will play Mt. Carmel Tuesday night.

John Russell scored 24 points, Rob Shawcroft 23--including seven three-pointers--and Mark Phillips 20 for Granite Hills.

Girls

Division I quarterfinals

Point Loma 64, Chula Vista 12--Monica Filer scored 17 points, Chris Drumm 16 and Tyeast Brown 14 for Point Loma (28-1). The Point Loma girls will play Poway Tuesday. Chula Vista lost Marcey Wolf, its leading scorer, to an ankle injury in the second quarter. Wolf, who finished with two points, was getting set to take the ball out of bounds when a referee accidentally tripped her.

Santana 54, Mt. Carmel 46--Rebecca Aase led the host Sultans (23-2) on both offense and defense. Santana will meet Mira Mesa Tuesday. Aase had 11 points and 10 rebounds and held Mt. Carmel’s leading scorer, Vicky DeJesus (who was averaging 17 points) to eight. Santana’s Stephanie Thompson was the game’s high scorer with 27. Joyce Hyden paced Mt. Carmel (14-13) with 11 points.